Tawau
Tawau is the capital of the Tawau District in Sabah, Malaysia.
Tawau is the capital of the Tawau District in Sabah, Malaysia. It is the third-largest city in Sabah, after Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan. It is located on the Semporna Peninsula in the southeast coast of the state in the administrative centre of Tawau Division, which is bordered by the Sulu Sea to the east, the Celebes Sea to the south at Cowie Bay and shares a border with North Kalimantan, Indonesia. The town had an estimated population as of 2010, of 113,809, while the whole municipality area had a population of 397,673. The municipal area had a population of 372,615 at the 2020 Census.
Adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Worth seeing in and around Tawau
4 places within 25 km that the world writes about, in the order of how widely: the ones a visitor has heard of first, then the ones only a local would name.
- 01Al-Kauthar Mosque
The Al-Kauthar Mosque, also known as Masjid Besar Tawau, is a Sunni mosque, located in Tawau, Sabah, Malaysia.
1.7 km · mosque in Malaysia · Wikipedia - 02Tawau Bell Tower
The Tawau Bell Tower is the oldest standing structure in Tawau, constructed by the Japanese to commemorate the signing of armistice agreement following World War I when Japan was an ally of Great Britain.
2.1 km · tower in Tawau, Sabah, Malaysia · Wikipedia - 03Tawau Japanese War Memorial
Tawau Japanese War Memorial is a former Japanese cemetery in Tawau in the Malaysian state of Sabah which has been transformed into a memorial.
2.1 km · monument · Wikipedia - 04Fo Guang Shan Temple, Tawau
Fo Guang Shan Temple Tawau is a Buddhist temple located in Tawau, Sabah, Malaysia. It is one of the overseas temple for the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist organization based in Taiwan.
1 km · Buddhist temple in Tawau, Malaysia · Wikipedia
Ranked by the number of language editions of Wikipedia with an article on each, from Wikidata; the sentences are the openings of those articles, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Things to do
Within the region of Tawau, tourists can also dive from the islands of Roach Reefs or take an hour drive to Semporna to dive at popular destinations like Mataking, Mabul, Pompong, Kapalai and the Great Sipadan - The only oceanic island in Malaysia, rising about 5000 feet above seabed. Popular dive shops and agents in Tawau includes: Aquatastic, info@aquatastic.net.
From Wikivoyage: Tawau, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.
Where to eat
Sabindo Hawker Center offers a variety of seafood stalls at Sabindo centre. From Chinese, Malay and Thai tom yum seafood stall, it is just located along the waterfront in town. The stalls offer very competitive prices for the selective catch of the day. Makanan Laut 101 serves excellent crab and shellfishes with vegetables at incredibly low prices. At night, numerous stalls set up around the town.
From Wikivoyage: Tawau, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.
Getting to Tawau
- Airports
- Kota Kinabalu (BKI), 276 km
- Kota Kinabalu → Tawau279 km · quickest by road, 8h 34m · RM90–115
- Kuching → Tawau891 km · quickest by road, 27h 29m · RM290–385
- Bandar Seri Begawan → Tawau335 km · quickest by road, 11h 17m · $48–65
- Plan a tripFrom anywhereThe planner compares every way there from wherever you are.
Road and air are today’s quick answer; timetabled trains, buses and ferries load on the results page from the operators’ feeds.
No local-transport research exists yet for Tawau
Our researched notes are written from a sourced entry: every shared taxi, boat and village bus with its operator, its rule, its fare and the year we saw it, and what could not be confirmed. Nobody has done that work for Tawau. What is above is what we hold from open sources; nothing here pretends to be more.
- Get inThe only ferry connection is to the Indonesian city of Nunukan in North Kalimantan province.
- Go nextNunukan - an island in North Kalimantan, Indonesia, is just one an hour away by ferry.
- Go nextAs of 2023, no direct ferry connection exists anymore, you have to go to Nunukan first.
From Wikivoyage: Tawau, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us; that article was last edited 2026-03.
- 01335 km
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If you know how people move in Tawau – the stand, the rule, the fare – tell us, and the note gets an entry.
Next door to Tawau
- Kampung Titinganvillage in Tawau, Sabah, Malaysia2.2 km
- Tawau Municipal CouncilLocal authorities in Tawau district, Sabah1.5 km